SeniorLearn

Following are links to various classical references in Carol Goodman's, "The Night Villa." They were researched by participants in the SeniorLearn online Bookclub who are reading and discussing her book. See the link to the Night Villa discussion.

Please bookmark this page and check back often, as we are adding new resources as we discuss the book.

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MULTISPECTRAL IMAGING OF PAPYRUS ROLLS

(reference first found in Chapter 1)
X-ray fluorescence technology used to scan ancient texts that were once unreadable due to causes such as blackening in fires, chemical erosion, painting over or being too fragile to unroll.

Wall Street Journal article, "The Next Age of Discovery"
Article about new techniques researchers are using to digitally view and capture ancient artifacts.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124173896716198603.html

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OVID

(reference first found in Chapter 1)
The Roman poet, Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC - AD 17 or 18)

Encyclopedia Britannica Online article about Ovid
Brief free article about Ovid's life.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/436057/Ovid

Wikipedia article about Ovid
Article in Wikipedia about Ovid, his life and work, with many links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid

Life of Ovid at Mythography website
Short biography of Ovid.
http://www.loggia.com/myth/ovid.html

Book: The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, Ed. Philip Hardie
Limited online reading available of selected pages of this book which includes a history and background of Ovid, his work and themes, his reception and his influence on art.
http://books.google.com/books?id=MqRV8Xx-7JwC&pg=RA1-PA368&lpg=RA1-PA368&dq=birth+of+ovid&source=bl&ots=iIRwy-vDkF&sig=sVN55XDPnXHAmT_gLxZPN3Te4zk&hl=en&ei=IwIkSpCRF5mStAOmyZyUBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPA167,M1

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OVID - METAMORPHOSES

(reference first found in Chapter 1)
Ovid's poem, "Metamorphoses," is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world. It is our best classical source of 250 myths.

Ovid Collection at the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center
Links to multiple translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid

Sacred Texts Archive of text of Metamorphoses in English and Latin
The text of Metamorphoses in 15 books, in Latin and in English. Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ovid/meta/index.htm

Text of Metamorphoses at MIT's Classics program
The text of Metamorphoses divided into 14 books. Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al.
http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html

Ovid Project: University of Vermont, editor: Hope Greenberg
Links to images illustrating the Metamorphoses.
http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/ovid

Wikipedia article about the poem, Metamorphoses
Article in Wikipedia about the poem, Metamorphoses, with many links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphoses

Brown, Larry A., Ovid's Metamorphoses
An introduction and commentary about Metamorphoses with discussion of myths and links to sources and influences in art and literature by Larry A. Brown, Nashville, TN
http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.ovid1.htm

Lecture by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University
Text of a lecture on Ovid's Metamorphoses.
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/Ovid.htm

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RELATED BOOKS

• Beard, Mary, The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found
  Comments by Ginny: It's not a book you should read like I did in bits and pieces, so I started it over and I can see why it's shortlisted for a prize: it's really good. Dr. Beard teaches Classics at Cambridge and she has a lot of interesting information on Pompeii. Once you read it, you really do know a lot more.
  
  
• Sider, David, The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum
  Comments by Ginny: The chapter on Greek and Roman books alone is worth a sit down in any bookstore. Sider explains what a Roman book (on papyrus) looked like and how they made them, how they stored them, and the truly horrific efforts they previously made to try to read those they found in the Villa dei Papyri, (when they weren't burning them for fuel, they look like charred lumps of coal or wood). . . . If you can get your hands on that book, a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's full of pictures.